Paul Schrader once again adapts author Russell Banks in his “Oh Canada”, presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
What is left at the end of a life, if not its past and its memories? This is all the reflection of Oh Canada, drama by Paul Schrader presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In this anti-biopic, adaptation of the novel by Russell Banks, we follow a famous American documentarian, who has taken refuge in Canada since the Vietnam War. A gesture seen as courageous as this artist symbolizes the counterculture of the 1960s and did not fail to campaign through his work. But while he is seriously ill, he agrees to give a final interview to one of his former students and in front of his wife. And, above all, reveal the whole truth, nothing but the truth, about what his life really was.
Deceptively simple in its plot, Oh Canada is disconcerting as its fragmented structure makes it difficult to approach the real issues of the film. But Paul Schrader delivers here a non-linear anti-biopic, strewn with pitfalls and confusion. Because it is not simply the life of a cowardly man, consumed by guilt, having fled the United States to escape his family responsibilities that he seeks to depict here, but the moments which precede death, when the he man finds himself at the precipice of his life and can only look back before jumping, despite the confusion, despite the blurring memories, before crossing the final frontier.
Richard Gere delivers a remarkable performance as this dying documentarian, reuniting with Paul Schrader more than four decades later American Gigolo, facing an emotional Uma Thurman. If Oh Canada proves fascinating in its subject matter, it is often as confused as the memories of its protagonists. The constant fragmented structure, and the different voice-overs, unfortunately make this drama dry and often make the viewer, too busy searching for the meaning of what they are shown, miss the flow of emotion. Oh Canada coming out in theaters soon.
Synopsis – A famous American documentary filmmaker who has taken refuge in Canada since the Vietnam War, condemned by illness, grants a final interview to one of his former students, to finally tell the whole truth about what his life has been like.